To enter into a con or not?

[Knowname]

I have a video that I want everybody to see :egotisticle chuckle: but I know of people that never watch videos unless they're on con cds so I just sorta' wanna join a con just so more ppl would watch my excuisite vid! but I have a few questions,

1 as it seems that the only big con over the horrizon is late October (Idunno, that PA Con) or early Nov. (Animerica or Nekocon) is it true that you can't debut your vid till after it debuts at the con?

2 My next Q is obvious, could I enter into more than one con with this? Or would it just hurt my chances (as some of the judges may be the same) I mean my main goal is just to enter it but of coarse I want to win!

3 I'm under the impression that some of the cons I haven't heard of wouldn't have cd's distributed is this true?

4 how do you get into that amv distro btw???

5 I don't have anything saying what the song is but I do have a recognition of the anime. Doesn't seem to be a prob with Animerica or Nekocon as they just add in what you register it as before they show the vid, but wouldn't it just be repititious as a part of that is already in the vid?? bah

6 Nekocon retouches it to MPEG2 720x480 my vid is 522x288 that ratio doesn't mix!! wadda ya'll suggest I do?

The PA one also doubles the points of attendors NOT FARE! I'm not attending anything, besides I live on the West Coast! So Animerica looks like the one... but you think I should wait till their ftp is up or should I just send it in (I live in the country, FTP is MUCH better). Their's other smaller ones I'm concidering but I really want it to be distrubuted well... any suggestions?

[Scintilla]

I have a video that I want everybody to see :egotisticle chuckle: but I know of people that never watch videos unless they're on con cds so I just sorta' wanna join a con just so more ppl would watch my excuisite vid! but I have a few questions,

1 as it seems that the only big con over the horrizon is late October (Idunno, that PA Con) or early Nov. (Animerica or Nekocon) is it true that you can't debut your vid till after it debuts at the con?

Absolutely not. You can put your vid up for download any time you want; it's just that some people WANT to premiere their vids at cons.

2 My next Q is obvious, could I enter into more than one con with this? Or would it just hurt my chances (as some of the judges may be the same) I mean my main goal is just to enter it but of coarse I want to win!

The general rule is that you can't submit a vid to any more cons after it's won an award at one. One exception to this is Nan Desu Kan; they seem to be willing to take anything <i>they</i> haven't seen already.

3 I'm under the impression that some of the cons I haven't heard of wouldn't have cd's distributed is this true?

I didn't realize ANY cons produced AMV CDs. Otakon sure didn't (though I think Matt said that <i>tapes</i> were available to the entrants).

4 how do you get into that amv distro btw???

... what?

5 I don't have anything saying what the song is but I do have a recognition of the anime. Doesn't seem to be a prob with Animerica or Nekocon as they just add in what you register it as before they show the vid, but wouldn't it just be repititious as a part of that is already in the vid?? bah

The rules on bumpers and credits vary. Check with the particular con.

6 Nekocon retouches it to MPEG2 720x480 my vid is 522x288 that ratio doesn't mix!! wadda ya'll suggest I do?

Figure out a way to letterbox it so that it won't be stretched when it's resized.

[mexicanjunior]

4 how do you get into that amv distro btw???

... what?

[/quote]

http://homepage.mac.com/red_wolf/Distro/

[trythil]

I have a video that I want everybody to see :egotisticle chuckle: but I know of people that never watch videos unless they're on con cds so I just sorta' wanna join a con just so more ppl would watch my excuisite vid! but I have a few questions,

1 as it seems that the only big con over the horrizon is late October (Idunno, that PA Con) or early Nov. (Animerica or Nekocon) is it true that you can't debut your vid till after it debuts at the con?

Absolutely not. You can put your vid up for download any time you want; it's just that some people WANT to premiere their vids at cons.

Not entirely true. Some contests enforce secrecy - for example, AWA Masters.

It's always a good idea to read the contest rules.

2 My next Q is obvious, could I enter into more than one con with this? Or would it just hurt my chances (as some of the judges may be the same) I mean my main goal is just to enter it but of coarse I want to win!

The general rule is that you can't submit a vid to any more cons after it's won an award at one. One exception to this is Nan Desu Kan; they seem to be willing to take anything <i>they</i> haven't seen already.

Even that's not really a rule -- AX, for example, will take award-winning videos.

It's always a good idea to read the contest rules.

3 I'm under the impression that some of the cons I haven't heard of wouldn't have cd's distributed is this true?

For Otakon, tapes were available to finalists. This isn't universal, though.

It's always a good idea to read the contest rules.

4 how do you get into that amv distro btw???

Red Wolf's service?

It's always a good idea to read sticky threads in the General AMV forum.

5 I don't have anything saying what the song is but I do have a recognition of the anime. Doesn't seem to be a prob with Animerica or Nekocon as they just add in what you register it as before they show the vid, but wouldn't it just be repititious as a part of that is already in the vid?? bah

99% of contests will say "no bumpers" for consistency purposes. Which is fine, because bumpers suck anyway.

It's always a good idea to read the contest rules.

6 Nekocon retouches it to MPEG2 720x480 my vid is 522x288 that ratio doesn't mix!! wadda ya'll suggest I do?

Add 99 pixels of blackness to the left/right sides and 96px to the bottom and top. This will make compression a little harder, but since you're most likely encoding at a very high bitrate, it won't be too bad of a hit.

It's always a good idea to read the guides.

...and do subtraction.

[Knowname]

oh! I get the point! thanks alot Ty! MJ understands ... and thanks Scintilla anyway ;-p no j/k, thanks...

[dokool]

The convention season is really starting to wind down. There are still a couple midsize cons that are accepting videos (Nekocon, AUSA, etc), and these can be great testing grounds for your video before the 2004 con season begins.

-DOKool

[Illia Sadri]

There are still a few cons still taking in amv submissions. I work for a first year con that is the second weekend of October and we are still taking in submissions.... may be a good place to begin as it will be smaller and a good way to get into competition. Don;t know the submission status of some of the other conventions coming up in October and early November.

And as people have mentioned there are mid sized cons around the corner in Virginia coming up. Nekocon has been a con very much enjoyed by the anime community.

I would avoid your first contest being one of the huge cons such as Otakon, ACEN, Expo etc. It is hard enough to get into those contests and it is often discouraging to fail. Small cons and medium cons offer a much better start. While it won't have the crowd of Otakon, at least you have a chance of it playing to however many hundred may be watching the contest at that smaller con.

As far as the other concerns...... the ratio thing is not hard to fix. I am presuming you had a widescreen source? But that is a quick fix. It was mentioned before to merely add on the necessary amount in black space. If you need help on that let me know....

okay.... toodles

[trythil]

I would avoid your first contest being one of the huge cons such as Otakon, ACEN, Expo etc.

Too bad ACen's AMV contest isn't exactly reputable yet

[dwchang]

I would avoid your first contest being one of the huge cons such as Otakon, ACEN, Expo etc.

Too bad ACen's AMV contest isn't exactly reputable yet

Oh it's reputable alright...for all the wrong reasons.

[Illia Sadri]

yeah..... we all know the horrors of ACEN's amv contest. This year was pretty bad. And that was for the few who made it in the contest out of the 9 hours or so of submissions sent in.

Hence why the big cons are not always better.